


The Accidental Akul Incident

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-22 00:41:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7411643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shaak Ti is fond of teaching nature's danger, and takes an Initiate Class to do so. Only, Nature has a way of intersecting with the Force when Destiny is on the line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Accidental Akul Incident

**Author's Note:**

> If you want a less cute but totally awesome version of Ahsoka and her Hunt, please read [Hunter's Choice](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7370026) by B_Radley. Phenom story.

Master Shaak Ti was an unconventional Master at best. Her reliance on Shili as a training ground had seen her raise up two padawans, only to see both murdered before they could stand alone as Knights. Yet, still she held faith in her methods. Given the ability to evade and kill predators capable of taking down fully adult Togruta, neither young Knight should have fallen prey to a sentient being with murder on the mind, yet they had.

She chose not to take on any more padawans after that, but instead focused on the younger ones. A class of Initiates were coming through now, a class full of potential, one that needed to be prepared for the darkness growing in the galaxy. Perhaps if she ingrained the skills in them younger, they would help keep the Initiates safer when they went to their Masters.

She did not expect to find that one among the Initiates was truly a youngling, and she nearly abandoned her plan. That it was a Togruta made her waver, and she sought out those who knew her best. By her own reckoning, the youngling could not possibly be of an age to carry the rank of Initiate.

Master Yoda was adamant. "Promoted her I did. Too strong in the Force to hold her back. Given to visions since she was small, she is. Already seen her Master, she has. Dissuade her, none can."

Master Plo Koon, however, had given softer answers concerning his foundling. "Ahsoka was not caught by the healers at birth, and she retains a strong imprint of her culture, Shaak. She is pushed to excel, to defend her clan, with all the instincts of a huntress. She is quick and deft at technology as well as her studies, but she is far more driven in her combat learning. To the point of having sparked several… unfortunate pranks on other youngling clans and Knights alike. By practicing her stealth."

"She's a trouble maker?" Shaak asked, considering that against the personalities of the other Initiates she would be taking.

"She's bored," Plo defended. "Going with you, she will be challenged, and she will excel."

"Then I will take her. I do not intend to teach them the Hunt, but she should be prepared for that, for when she is of age to seek her akul."

"Safe journey, my friend," Plo said, relieved his smile was hidden beneath the mask. His little 'Soka would soak up the lessons Shaak had to share.

* * *

Five initiates were not beyond the capability of one Master Jedi. Shaak repeated that to herself, even as she, again, counted four Initiates. She was just getting ready to seek the youngling with the Force when Ahsoka stood from a slight depression in the grass, in a spot Shaak had only _just_ looked at moments before.

A Jedi Master was not supposed to feel pride so strong, nor anticipate the training of another with so much joy as Shaak did in that moment. The youngest of her class was capable of being still, of letting herself blend into the grasses, that well? Shaak Ti could not wait until the girl was of age to hunt an Akul, and would be there as her Hunt Partner to witness it, she vowed.

* * *

It was ill-luck that had the small group out in the deep plains, studying the ways of one of the great herds. It was ill-luck that comms did not always function well in such places, far from relay stations.

Shaak Ti might otherwise have known that an akul had escaped a Hunt nearby, leaving the Hunters dead or missing, and the akul injured, leading it to the madness of pain and infection. She would have been more on-guard, or might even have taken the class back to the settlement she was working from.

She would not have gotten blindsided when the herd suddenly exploded in a stampede, causing the class to become separated as each Initiate used Jedi training to avoid being trampled. They made their way, more or less, toward the skimmer that was a feeble beacon of security in the face of such wild danger. Shaak was scanning, trying to determine the cause, and her eyes flitted over the smallest Initiate suddenly stopping, taking a protective stance over -- over one of the others, who had fallen. They were on the farther edge of the stampede, and then Shaak found the cause. She had to move, had to reach them, even if it meant bounding over the backs of the herd to get there, because there was an akul.

* * *

Ahsoka Tano had been happy to find herself on this trip to her homeworld. Memories had come back, memories of living in the grass seas, cared for by her clan. She listened to everything Master Ti said eagerly, her whole body alive at being in the wide open spaces. 

Maybe it was because she'd been lying on the ground that she felt the first tremor of the stampede before her classmates did. She hadn't thought to trill the warning, because Master Ti knew everything. She just tugged at the hands of the two nearest, pointing, and they had started moving.

Only, T'ahre had fallen. And Ahsoka's nose had brought the scent of a predator. She was still too young to rely on her montrals, but her nose was keen, and the scent carried illness, matted fur, and blood. She turned from her flight, standing over T'ahre's legs, and saw the first akul she had seen since being a toddler in the safety of her father's arms.

"There is no try," she told herself, her small lightsaber in her hands as she noted the akul had locked its gaze on them. Small, helpless prey was what the akul saw… and then Ahsoka ran, leaping just over the first attack from the beast. She did not ignite the lightsaber yet, having a bare thought of a plan. She did not know if Master Ti could reach them quickly enough. She did not want to risk T'ahre being bitten, or worse. All she knew was that her friend was in danger unless she stopped the akul.

Moving, always moving, that was the key to survival, Ahsoka's instincts screamed at her, even as she felt a tear along her ribs. She had to ignore that, but it meant the forelimb was near… a leap had her on it, using it to spring higher. The akul roared as the prey's legs locked around its upper body, and it turned its mouth to grasp one thin limb, to pull the prey down —

— and it began to spasm, head to toe, as the lightsaber was ignited at the base of its skull, plunging into the brain to bring a fast, merciful death. In falling, it flung its killer to one side, and Ahsoka hissed as the gashes of its claws in her side burned like fire. She struggled to get back to her feet, just in case… and saw that the akul was unmoving. She let her lightsaber die away, vaguely proud she'd held on to it, and started to move back toward T'ahre to be sure her friend was safe.

"Ahsoka Tano!"

The Initiate cringed to hear her name so loud and fierce in the master's voice. She'd tried so hard to stay out of trouble! Master Plo had asked her to promise!

"I'm sorry, Master Ti; T'ahre was down, and I think they twisted their ankle, and I didn't…."

Her protests were cut off as the elegant Togruta dropped in front of her on her knees, pulling Ahsoka close to inspect her, eyes full of pride and concern alike. "Shh, Little Huntress. You did as the Force moved you to do, and you did well." Shaak Ti tore a strip of her own robe, making a pad to press against the wounds, then had Ahsoka hold it there so she could get another strip and tie it in place until they could get to the aid kit.

"You're not mad?" Ahsoka asked, her eyes going so big in worry and surprise that Shaak had to laugh softly.

"No, Little Huntress, I am not. Surprised, yes. And that, Ahsoka, was not a proper Hunt in the least. But I think the Elders will forgive you the use of your lightsaber, given the circumstances. We can do it correctly when you are more of an age."

Ahsoka looked over at the unmoving akul, then reached up to touch Shaak Ti's headdress, as she finally understood what she had done. "It was sick, and injured already," she said softly. "And I had a lightsaber. It is not a proper Hunt," she agreed, but the impact of killing her people's most-feared predator had her knees a little shaky.

"Take the teeth anyway, to keep. And when you are a little older, my kinswoman, we will Hunt properly."

Ahsoka slowly smiled, and hugged the Master, both for that promise and for being named 'kin'.

* * *

"…and that is what happened," Shaak Ti finished telling Plo Koon, with other Masters and senior Knights listening avidly. "No hesitation, no thought to her own safety, merely duty to her fellow Initiate."

"Young, she is, for such feats," Yoda mused. "Testing her, the Force is. Destiny, on her shoulders."

"Then we shall give her all the training we may, to prepare her for the hard road ahead," Plo said firmly, thinking of his own people's Force traditions, seeing Kit Fisto nod. There were more things than the standard classes to be taught for Plo's foundling, and he looked forward to it.


End file.
